Northern Michigan Village President Under Fire For Racist, Homophobic, and Anti-Islam Facebook Posts

Racism, homophobia, and Islamophobia is alive and well in one Northern Michigan town, and residents are now taking a stand against a village president who can't keep his hatred off of social media.

It all started when a number of people complained about a hotel in Kalkaska, MI displaying a Trump sign on the front of the building.

Emma Savach via Facebook

Residents in Kalkaska state that posting political signs on businesses is against the village code. Complaints were made, but nothing was done about the sign that still hangs on Hotel Sieting (a hotel that hasn't been completely operational in decades). Campaign signs are only allowed to be displayed on businesses 45 days before an election, and only 7-10 days after the election. Since the election ended in 2016, this is clearly against village ordinance. According to village police it doesn't violate village code. The definition of a political sign is any sign that supports any political candidate or issue. Last time I checked the sign that is hanging on Hotel Sieting is STILL considered a political sign whether he changed a word around or not. Village police did not go into detail as to why the sign is allowed, they just stated that it does not break village code. Weird.

Here is how the village president responded to the complaints...

Lets move on though and focus on what is really important here, and that is a village president who spends his free time posting anti-Islam hatred on his Facebook page. After numerous residents in Kalkaska sent me screenshots of his Facebook posts, I decided to look into the issue further and realized this is no way a village president should be acting on social media. Need an example? Here's one of the many posts on his public Facebook page...

Jeff S Sieting via Facebook

This man is a political leader in Kalkaska, yet he spews hatred like this daily on his public Facebook page? Here's another example, this time aiming at the Black Lives Matter movement and saying that it is time to "thin out the heard"

Jeff Sieting via Facebook

Need more proof that it might be time for a new village president in Kalkaska? How about referring to a transgenders as "freaks" that have mental illnesses.

Jeff Sieting via Facebook

And finally publicly bashing a lesbian couple for becoming pastors at a baptist church...

Jeff Sieting via Facebook

This is the village president of a small town in Northern Michigan that would rather spend time spreading hate than worrying about fixing up downtown and the rest of Kalkaska. Sure, everyone has the right to voice an opinion, but this is more than just being opinated, this is hate speech material. This is blatant racism, homophobia, anti-islam hatred that needs to put to an end. When you post public messages like this you can't expect to just sit back and say "This is America and this is my first amendment right!" because there is a big difference between voicing an opinion and saying that anyone who is Islamic needs to be killed. There has been little progress in Kalkaska since Sieting took over in 2011. Downtown is a disaster, there is a major heroin epidemic, and even his hotel that has been unusable for decades is still not up to code. Don't believe me? Next time you're in Kalkaska drive around the "historic" Hotel Sieting and you'll see boarded up windows, holes in the building, uncut grass, and garbage all around the property. Kalkaska has a "leader" who can't even take care of his own hotel, and yet he is in charge of the entire village?

I think it is time for the residents of Kalkaska to take action against a village president who clearly doesn't know how to be a leader. This isn't about Trump, this is about following ordinances and not being a political leader who spends his free time spreading hate and threatening to kill others. There is no "space to grow" in Kalkaska as long as this village president has power. Residents have created an event and are planning on forming a peaceful protest that will happen on Friday at 7pm. Click here for more details.